Youtube, Jimmy Fallon

To make her lessons more engaging and fun, images, YouTube clips and songs often are featured

in her lesson plans. Perhaps, a song called “James K. Polk” by the band They Might Be Giants. A video clip of Jimmy Fallon discussing the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. A trip to the George H.W. Bush’s presidential library in College Station.

“Whether it makes them question it, or makes them laugh at it ... they tend to remember it better, I find,” Lacquey said.

The mantra has proven true in her own life. Lacquey remembers how, as a high school student, her world history teacher taught her and classmates calligraphy to help them better understand Chinese culture.

Lacquey hasn’t always known to incorporate such lessons.

The wife and mother earned her alternative certification to teach, which involved on-the-job training, and would later receive a master’s degree in education with an emphasis on history as a James Madison Fellow at the University of Houston. But it was a summer program early in her career, which involved the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and the University of Houston, that changed her perspective on how teaching could be done. It showed her “that teaching history can and should go beyond just the textbook,” Lacquey wrote in material for her Humanities Texas award application.

The program provided Lacquey with material to use in class.

“The payoff was fairly immediate,” she wrote, “but most rewarding was having a classroom full of students that appreciated and remembered the activities long after they were done.”

One student, Keaton Bell, 17, recalled how Lacquey’s course had shown him another side to the often idolized Christopher Columbus. (Lacquey hosts a seminar in which they read different historical viewpoints on Columbus and discuss whether Columbus Day should be celebrated.)

Another student, Payton Srack, 17, who sits front and center in Lacquey’s dual-credit course, said he appreciated his teacher’s passion.

“I like learning about history and learning about how we can improve the future by looking at the past,” Srack said.

Value of humanities

At 8 a.m. on a recent Tuesday, District 28 state Rep. John Zerwas, R-Simonton, and Untermeyer, the board member and a former ambassador to Qatar visited Lacquey’s classroom to present her with the distinction.

Lacquey received a $5,000 award along with a framed certificate. Katy High School was also awarded $500 for instructional materials.

More than 450 people had been nominated for the prize, according to a news release.

“It’s a highly competitive award that is given for people who have demonstrated unique skills in the humanities,” Zerwas said. “Sometimes we discount the role and the value of the humanities, but I’m going to tell you it’s a tremendously important thing.”

Zerwas, who chairs the Texas House of Representatives’ higher education committee, praised Lacquey’s unique ability to capture her students’ attention and prepare them to integrate what they learned with the lessons they will be presented with in college.

“You may not remember sitting in this classroom every day, but you will remember Ms. Lacquey and the impact that she had on your learning and on your education,” said Liz James, educational programs coordinator for Humanities Texas. “So, don’t take it for granted.”